Always You
by justanoutlaw
Summary: The first words your soulmate will ever say to you is tattooed on your arm at birth. Emma has always been apprehensive about what exactly hers is going to find "impressive" about her.


I reblogged a prompt list on Tumblr with a bunch of different AU situations. An anonymous user sent in a request for a Swanfire soulmates AU, with the additional request of tattoos being involved.

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Emma had heard the stories her entire life. You were born with the tattoo of the first word or words your soulmate was meant to say to you. Her parents were the embodiment of true love, they always told the story. Snow could never quite understand why she would have "thief" on hers, while David was constantly teased for having "woman" imprinted on his own skin. The princess stared at her own tattoo with great interest several times throughout her life.

 _Impressive._

What did that mean? Would her soulmate be complimenting her body? Her title? She became quite self-conscious with her looks at a young age. She was already quite the untraditional princess, as she hated wearing dresses and often would wear pants. She didn't understand what about her could be so impressive? Her parents tried to convince her otherwise, but she wasn't so sure.

As she was reaching her 18th birthday, it seemed that everyone around her was finding their soulmates. Her mother would tell her that she didn't meet her prince charming until her late 20s, not that it helped matters much. The whole system seemed to be so wonky anyway. How was it fair to make people anticipate who their true love would be? It was a constant reminder on their arm.

One day, she was taking a stroll through the woods, she spotted a fox whining in pain. She could see it had a thorn stuck in its paw. She knew better than to just walk up to it and try to remove it, not without getting bit. So, she slowly made her way over, extending her hand and whistling a bit. She had learned to communicate with animals through her mother. The fox looked up at her, tilting his head.

"It's okay buddy," she said. "I just want to help you."

Kneeling down in front of him, she allowed him to sniff her hand. He continued to whimper and didn't move to hurt her, so she reached in, pulling out the thorn.

"There we go, all better." The fox licked it a couple of times before doing the same to her cheek. He got up on all fours and trotted away.

A male voice came from behind her. "Impressive."

Emma froze, not wanting to turn around. Was this really it? 18 years of waiting, countless nights wondering who it could possibly be and here he was. Drawing a deep breath, she stood up and turned around. She hadn't seen the guy before. He looked to be about her age with curly dark brown hair and matching eyes. He had a crooked smile and was lazily leaning up against a tree.

"Holy shit," she mumbled.

The guy did a double take and then pulled up his shirt sleeve. He looked down at it, then back at her. Emma moved closer, checking out the words tattooed onto his arm.

 _Holy shit._

"Well…I guess this all makes sense," he said with a nervous chuckle.

Emma couldn't help but smile. "I uh, guess it does. I've been waiting for you, ya know. Took you long enough to show up."

"My apologies, milady." He pretended to bow. "The name's Baelfire."

"Emma." She extended a hand, only to laugh. "Um, I don't know if that's the proper way of doing it? Shaking your soulmates hand?"

"We can take it slow, we did just meet after all." He put his hand into hers, loving how warm it felt. "You're the princess, aren't you?"

Emma nodded. "And who are your parents?"

"I just have a dad, well, a step-mom now too. We live in the manor towards the end of the village."

"A step-mom, eh? So your dad had a child with someone he didn't consider his soulmate?"

"He wasn't sure if he believed in all that crap until Belle, their first words to each other matched the tattoos. I was still skeptical, though," Baelfire admitted. "Until now."

Emma grinned. "I'm just…I'm just glad it was always you."

Bae nodded. "Me too."

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As always, I do accept prompts! Whether it be on here or my Tumblrs: just-an-outlaw and justanoutlawfanfiction.


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